LOSING AND FINDING

Twenty – Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ex 32: 7 – 11 / Ps 51 / 1 Tm 1: 12 – 17 / Lk 15: 1 – 32 or 1 – 10

Have you experienced losing something very important to you? I recall this incident with my father inside the retreat house during the Legion of Mary conference a few years ago. Early morning, he was calling home because he was looking for his sandals. Awakened by his angry voice, I helped him search for his sandals. It was nowhere to be found! After some time of deliberate search, we both sat down and surrendered. What did we discover? He was all the while wearing them.

The Gospel we read is just part of the long Chapter 15 of Luke. I forgo reading the second part of this Gospel which is about the parable of the prodigal Son. Let us just reserve our reflection on that beautiful parable during the season of Lent. In the first 10 verses of this Gospel, we see a divine action of God – he is a God who searches, who is willing to look for the lost in order to complete the whole. And this is beautifully portrayed in the story of the shepherd who looks for one lost sheep and the woman who searches for the one lost coin.

If we look into our salvation history, we realize that God has also been looking for us. In our first reading today, the Lord commanded Moses to go down from the mountain because the Israelites were already getting lost; they were now following the golden calf. In the Second Reading, St. Paul also admitted that he was once a persecutor and a blasphemer but God has mercifully treated him. At one point in his life God found him and appointed him to be His minister.

My dear friends, this Sunday, we are reminded of a God, a Father, who constantly searches for us through his Son. For sure, you will agree with me that both the shepherd and the woman in our Gospel today have to undergo a lot of sacrifices in their search for the lost sheep and coin respectively. You could just imagine the danger of the shepherd being attacked by wolves, or the woman meeting an accident while searching for the lost coin. This is also true with Jesus. Our Lord, while he was looking for us, has to carry the cross up to Calvary and die on the same cross that he carried. He sacrificed his very self so that the Father will find us worthy to be his sons and daughters.

The question therefore that lies before us now is: “Has God found us?? Or the better question would be, “Have we allowed ourselves to be found by God?”

My dear friends, this is our problem. We only allow ourselves to be found by God during Holy Week. But after that Holy Week, we continue to hide away from him and wallow ourselves into our favorite sins. We only allow ourselves to be found by God when something bad happens to us like a life threatening accident or a terminal illness. Otherwise, we continue to run away from him.

After our graduation from Theology studies, my classmate took a leave from his seminary formation. And so, he found himself working in a car dealing company. After some time, he was doing well and earning well with his job. In fact, he planned that on his birthday, this was three years ago, he would have already purchased his own car. A few weeks before his birthday, however, typhoon Yolanda came. And such event was a turning point in his life. Being a survivor himself, he realized that such super typhoon destroyed not only many lives but also his own dreams in life. He lost everything. Yet, God found him. He found God. Come November, he will be ordained a priest.

Now, let’s go back to our question, “Have you experienced losing something very important for you?” Have you experienced losing God in your life? Then, what did you do? Did you allow him to find you back?

My dear friends, today may I invite you to allow yourselves to be found by God because finding you means great rejoicing in heaven. And so today, sin no more and be seen by God. Amen.